PIXL VISN: We all have some wrinkles or little pores that make us look natural and unique. When it comes to sculpting a realistic human face for 3D animation, it's all about the details — they differ good work from great work. Here at PIXL VISN our students spend days just creating small details for their 3D projects. One of these days has just begun for Franziska, a student of ours who is specializing in 3D modeling and sculpting. Good morning Franziska! How are you doing today?

Franziska: Really good, feeling motivated — always!

PIXL VISN: Franziska is very kind and gives us the opportunity to look over her shoulder today while using ZBrush. So, what project are you working on right now?

Franziska: Right now I'm working on my second demo project. It's an old man from India. I'm focusing on the face details and the upper body — and this man also has really long hair and a beard, so I'm going to do some grooming as well.

PIXL VISN: Why an old man?

Franziska: I just find it more interesting. I think older faces tell more of a story. When it comes to sculpting it's also a bit more challenging, because we have all the wrinkles — if a person is really happy their whole life, they have these laugh lines around their eyes, for example. So it's more interesting to sculpt.

PIXL VISN: Where do you get your references from — is it all in your mind?

Franziska: I found this one picture of an old man which I really liked, so I decided I want to sculpt this man. But then I'm collecting a whole bunch of different references — faces that are maybe a bit similar — because sometimes, if you don't have one picture with a really good resolution, you don't see many details. I'm also always looking for interesting expressions in the face or interesting lines. I put everything I like together and create my own style.

PIXL VISN: How far have you come until now, and what is your task today?

Franziska: I already sculpted the face and the body, so I have the basic shapes — you can already see the muscles and some bigger lines in the face. Now I really want to have all the fine lines, like under the eyes, and the pores.

PIXL VISN: Can you explain how you create those wrinkles in ZBrush? It seems like a lot of work.

Franziska: Usually I just block out the main forms and the main wrinkles. I use a standard brush, but I changed the alpha so it's a bit sharper. On the reference picture I can see he has two bigger wrinkles going from the eyes down the cheek, so I try to block those out. It's really easy in the program to exaggerate everything. For example, if you see on your reference that he has this line here, it's important not to create one huge line across — I try to break the line up into smaller lines, so it's not one really straight line.

PIXL VISN: How important are details for the bigger picture? They are so tiny, you barely see them.

Franziska: It looks way more realistic. Even if you zoom out and you don't see every small wrinkle but the whole form, it just doesn't look that flat. And in the end, when you render and the light hits the uneven skin, it creates some nicer effects.

PIXL VISN: The human face has many more details than just wrinkles. What other details are you working on right now?

Franziska: Now I'm placing the first pores on the face. When you look at pores really closely, you can see that a pore is not only a hole — it looks a bit more like a crater. So I started with creating only one pore, and then I created my own brush where I randomized the pores. Now I have a brush with a whole bunch of pores that I can place, for example, on the cheeks.

PIXL VISN: Are the pores everywhere on the face?

Franziska: You have pores everywhere, but you really only see them on the cheeks or on the forehead, for example. Later on I use the smooth brush and smooth them out, so the pores are not that strong. After I place the pores on the cheeks, I go in again and connect the pores in a direction going up to the eyes, and I also try to connect them to the wrinkles.

PIXL VISN: This looks perfect to me. Are you satisfied with what you did?

Franziska: Once I had placed all the pores I was already quite happy, but I found that something was missing: under the eyes the skin has a lot of bumps and really small wrinkles. For this area I used a brush that creates all these little bumps, and then I try to follow these lines and connect them with the wrinkles that I already placed — just to make it look a bit more realistic.

PIXL VISN: Franziska, I see that you create wrinkles around the mouth too. But in your reference he has a really long beard — you don't see the wrinkles, right?

Franziska: That's true, but I still like the idea that the face looks as realistic as possible. Even though he has the beard, you can still see his lips. For me it's a lot of fun to capture every little pore and every little wrinkle.

PIXL VISN: Do you sometimes get lost in doing that?

Franziska: Definitely, that happens all the time. I could spend hours just on this little part — and in the end you won't even see it, because he has a beard. But it really is fun.

PIXL VISN: So Franziska, all of this that you just showed us happened in one day, right?

Franziska: Yes, all of this took probably eight hours. I plan to be finished maybe in two months, because we have a deadline in January and I still have to work on two other projects.

PIXL VISN: When did you start working on it?

Franziska: I started at the beginning of October, so almost a month ago.

PIXL VISN: So three to four months as a whole. Looking at all those wrinkles and old men's faces — do you look at your grandfather's face more closely now?

Franziska: You definitely start looking differently at people's faces, that's for sure.

PIXL VISN: Thank you very much for letting us have a look at you and your project — we wish you all the best for it. I'm sure it will be great.

Franziska: Thank you!